The Animation Options Blog

Been remiss in my blog posts and wondering what to jump back in with. “Delgo” suing “Avatar” over the definition of ugly? Nah. How about Disney buying Marvel! Now THAT’S big. Looks like Steve Jobs didn’t completely clean them out.

From Variety…

DISNEY TO BUY MARVEL FOR $4 BILLION

Deal requires antitrust review

LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Co. says it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man into the Disney family.

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters.

Disney said Monday that Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own.

It said the boards of Disney and Marvel have both approved the transaction, but it requires an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.

“The Incredibles 2″ is going to be AWESOME!

Pretty low, it turns out. Seven years in the making, this slo-mo train wreck “opened wide” to the tune of barely a half-million dollars: roughly two people per screen per showing. So, what can we learn from this?

• Lesson #1: Don’t geek out on obscure, “epic” subject matter at the expense of characters that normal audiences can truly identify with.
• Lesson #2: If you find yourself on your sixth screenwriter, you probably don’t have a story worth telling.
• Lesson #3: Don’t tempt fate by appearing on magazine covers touting the “success” of your indie film… before it opens!
• Lesson #4: Don’t tempt fate further by boasting about how your film “violates” all of the conventional rules of successful animated feature filmmaking.
• Lesson #5: If you can’t find a distributor, don’t try to self-distribute. Get a clue, and go back to the drawing board… or abandon ship.

Unless you prefer to sink with it. And I can’t “Fathom” that.

Indie filmmakers, please - do yourselves a favor and begin with the end in mind.